Self-assessment is critical to learning

What is self-assessment? The ability of a person to objectively assess himself/herself in a given competency - whether technical or behavioral.

Technical assessments are somewhat easy - let me explain. In your math classes, your teacher typically gave you lots of problems to solve and check whether you really got the answers right. This is a way to assess oneself in the math competency. Similarly, other technical competencies tend to be "easily" addressed because the tools to assess are straightforward, in a sense.

However, when it comes to behavioral competencies, things become really tricky. For example: How good is your communication? How well do you delegate? How well do you manage your people? These are all difficult questions for which there aren't precise answers. Which is one reason why a lot of people stumble at understanding these behavioral competencies.

Here is where the ability to self-assess becomes critical. How does one go about assessing these behaviors? My suggestion is a two-step process.

a) Humility: This is most important! When one has the humility to admit that "I don't know", one gets to learn quickly. So, my suggestion is to assume that you don't know much, to begin with, and then adjust this self-perception along the way, by constantly checking and recalibrating your self-perception.

b) Observation: The ability to observe using all senses is critical: that is, observe others in that particular competency. For example, it is well known that former US President Bill Clinton was/is a master communicator. What is different in his communication versus President Obama? or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India? Can your observations be specific?

If you are a manager (or even if you aren't) what does a "good manager" in your company do, versus what you do? Can your
observations be specific?


If you are able to do these two things constantly and continually, there's no stopping your growth, personally and professionally.
Guaranteed!!

I'd love to hear from you as you practice these techniques! Thanks in advance!

By
Dr.Balasubramanian Krishnan
Chief Executive Officer

Fear: The potent killer of learning

I come across many people who are capable of doing a lot more in a professional capacity, but never seem to get around to doing it. I have often wondered why this was the case and what can be done to "unlock" their talent.

I believe that a lot of this is due to "fear". There are various kinds of fears that people exhibit. Some of these are:

a) Fear of the unknown: Some people are afraid of doing something because they don't know if there are serious consequences. This prevents such people from ever experimenting and experiencing their curiosity.

I usually ask such people": "What is the worst that can happen?" And after they are convinced that the worst outcome isn't so bad after all, they start taking the plunge and conquering their fears.

b) Fear of what "others might say/think": Many people I know are afraid of what other people might say or think about what they do. And this prevents them from doing what they really want to do.

For people who have such fears, I usually ask: "So, who would you rather be: yourself or someone else that you want others to think of you?" This is a tough call, because we all have some exalted views of ourself and are unwilling to accept the humble truth that we all are what we are. Whenever a person has confronted this question well, I have seen it pay handsome dividends. But it isn't easy.

c) Fear of failure: Some others are afraid to fail. This is extremely common, and is all too prevalent because of environments we grow up in. This fear also stems from a basic human instinct for survival. But, when properly considered, we must realize that all of us failed to do something initially as a child and only then learned our ways.

For such folks, it is usually important to create a "safe" environment for failure. This includes a school where one can learn from failure, a company where one can learn from failures, and more importantly, a family where failure isn't ridiculed.

I have found that fear is the potent killer of learning, and must be nipped in the bud, for any organization to be successful, be it a family, school, company or nation for that matter.

India, are you listening?

I am sure there are plenty of other fears, and I am interested to hear more from all of you.

Demystifying Ignorance: The power of the Question

Many people I know struggle with their jobs and much more because they weren't "properly" informed. I hear this problem in the case of software requirements, in the case of unfinished projects, in the case of important conversations and more. This happens often during performance appraisals - "I did not know you wanted me to do that... or you did not inform me", etc.

The words "properly informed" can mean one of two things: that the informant did not pass the information completely , or that the recipient did not ask the right question.

I will argue that the case is entirely the latter. Why?

For starters, let's look at it from the point of the informant: How can the informant know whether he/she conveyed all the information that was to be conveyed?

Unless the recipient asks relevant questions to complete his/her understanding of the information, there is no way for theinformant to know whether the matter was fully conveyed.

So, the question now becomes: "What questions do I ask theinformant?"

What do you think?

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By 
Dr.Balasubramanian Krishnan
Chief Executive Officer